Anatolii Vaneev's Circle as a Phenomenon of Informal Church Community in Leningrad in the 1970s–1980s

This chapter is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of the religious and philosophical circle that developed around Anatolii Vaneev and Fr. Sergii Zheludkov in the 1970s to early 1980s in Leningrad. It constitutes an example of informal church community founded by representatives of the Leningrad Orthodox intelligentsia who rediscovered the Russian religious-philosophical heritage and Christian faith in the 1950s–1960s.

Vaneev, who had come to faith in the Gulag through his encounter with the Russian religious philosopher Lev Karsavin, later on founded a religious and philosophical circle in Leningrad in the early 1970s.

The study of documents from the personal archives of Fr. Pavel Adel'geim and Fr. Sergii Zheludkov made it possible to identify the range of topics of the circle's discussions and the nature of its activities.

Vaneev's circle became an example of an intellectual and spiritual “breakthrough” in conditions of impoverishment of spiritual life, a space of exploration for new religious and theological searches, dialogue and creation of a living informal religious community in order to revive both the pre-revolutionary heritage of Russian Orthodoxy and religious-philosophical thought that was lost after the October Revolution.